AMD Richland uses FM2 socket

Back in June we mentioned that AMD’s upcoming D4 Bolton chipset does come with FM2+ support but back then we were lacking some details. You can check out the original report here.

It turns out that Bolton D4 is just a new version of the A85X chipset that will have better support for Richland processors. AMD has already officially confirmed that Trinity refresh in 2013 comes in the new 28nm process and we found out that the current schedule for Richland processor is late Q2 2013 launch.

We also heard from AMD that the FM2 infrastructure is here to stay and that the future processor including FM2 based Richland will work in FM2 boards. It remains unclear if Richland qualifies as a FM2+ processor that simply works in all FM2 motherboards.

The long-term strategy is to stick with the same socket for a longer than just one generation, as this was always a side of AMD that many fans appreciated.

The Bolton D3 chipset will also support both FM2 and FM2+ parts and comes without four USB 3.0 connectors but it allows cheaper motherboard to hit the market.

You should not have any doubts, Windows 8 will work just fine on Trinity and Richland and they are pretty nice processors in their respective price ranges.